Sakti3: The Next-Generation Battery Company You Need to Know About

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We’re always on the lookout for emerging technologies, manufacturing processes, and other nerdy things that could disrupt or enhance the automotive industry—but we must admit that our most recent discovery was a bit of a surprise. That discovery would be Michigan-based battery-tech startup Sakti3, which has crept into the headlines over the past year as it draws closer to producing a different variety of lithium-ion battery that promises to be more powerful, lighter, and less expensive than today’s lithium-ion cells—exactly the sort of killer app for which electric-car makers are pining. So what made Sakti3 such a surprise? Well, they occupy the building immediately next door to C/D HQ.

Until recently, we hadn’t any real idea what Sakti3 was up to. We drove by its building every day going to and from the office. We knew that its staff was inside doing techy things. We also knew that the company was fairly secretive about what went on inside. But from its humble post in our nondescript office park, the folks of Sakti3 were developing a plan to produce their new lithium-ion battery not from a spec sheet, but from an easily scalable manufacturing process.

This is the critical part, as Sakti3’s founder and CEO Dr. Ann Marie Sastry points out, because they “knew that only the science that could work in production would ever truly have an impact.” To Sakti3, creating a magic battery that’s better than every other battery on the market is great, but it’s also pretty much useless if manufacturing that battery is wildly expensive or complicated. It’s the difference between fizzling out as an interesting but doomed startup and actually impacting the market with an innovative technology. Sakti3 knew it wanted to build a solid-state lithium-ion battery, but wasn’t married to any single assembly process or internal constituent materials, freeing it up to quickly find the right—and most realistic—alchemy of manufacturability and battery performance.

Half the Size, Twice the Performance, Less Weight

So what, exactly, is a solid-state lithium-ion battery? Let’s start with today’s lithium-ion cells, which utilize a positive and negative electrode with a separator between them dunked into an aqueous electrolyte. Essentially, it’s two plates with a separator between them, but it can take on cylindrical “jellyroll” (electrodes and separator wrapped into a tube and submerged in electrolyte) or prismatic forms (square or rectangular, resembling a paperback book). When discharging, lithium ions flow from the positive electrode (made of a lithium compound) to the negative electrode (typically made of carbon), creating a potential difference (voltage) and thus an electric current.

Sakti3’s solid-state battery works more or less the same way, only it ditches the electrolyte. Of course, this wasn’t as simple as draining the fluid out, slapping the battery back together, and calling it a day. Sakti3 did a lot of investigation before settling on the right electrode and substrate (otherwise known as the separator) materials.

“Forgive the pun,” says Sastry, “we cycled through a number of choices computationally to come up with a combination that would theoretically offer high energy density and also be manufacturable on a scalable platform. No God machines.”

What are those materials? The company isn’t saying, although we’re told that, technically, the substrate could be “anything.” We’re also told that, compared to an identically sized traditional lithium-ion cell, Sakti3’s solid-state lithium-ion cell packs double the power and is “significantly” lighter and cheaper. Put another way, imagine a battery that takes up the same physical space as, say, the Tesla Model S’s floor-mounted pack but contains twice the power and weighs less. Acceleration and driving range would increase, as would the car’s overall efficiency.

Nearly as important is the fact that the chosen materials conform to the speedy, established manufacturing method that the company settled on: thin-film deposition. A process long used in the manufacture of computer chips, thin-film deposition sees the electrode material heated and its vapor pressure raised; the substrate is kept at a cooler temperature, drawing the electrode vapor toward it, forming a solid, ultrathin layer across the substrate. This is all done in a high vacuum, to ward off impurities. That’s a bit technical, but all you need to know is that, according to Sakti3, the process is easily repeatable and a lot less messy than the assembly of traditional lithium-ion batteries, not to mention cheaper.

No Explosive Death Panic–Generation Ability?

Sakti3 says the benefits of its solid-state batteries extend beyond light weight, greater energy density, and low cost; packaging also is improved, no matter what the battery is powering. Today’s lithium-ion batteries can get hot and are sensitive to high temperatures; thus, whether they’re installed in a laptop, a phone, or a car, the cells must be spaced out and away from other critical components to prevent heat soak. In cars, specifically, cylindrical cells are preferred, because the unused space between the cylinders can be beneficial for cooling, whether using air or liquid run through pipes or tubing. Sakti3’s battery cells are prismatic (and thus stackable), and they’re said to actually perform slightly better at higher temperatures, meaning that they can be closely packed together and will not require heavy cooling systems. We inquired as to any load-bearing capabilities of Sakti3’s batteries, and Dr. Sastry wouldn’t say, save for remarking that it was “a very good question.”

Another benefit? Regular lithium-ion batteries hold the possibility of fantastic, fiery disassembly if a cell is ruptured or impacted. The contents are under pressure, so crack a lithium-ion battery apart violently enough and, well, just ask Tesla Motors and GM about those headaches. And, the liquid does nothing but provide a freeway for ions in the incumbent tech—and it also degrades the cell over time. So, big safety problem, parasitic mass, and chemicals that break down the cell’s actual working parts—sounds like a good time to get rid of the liquid, right? Sakti3’s solid-state batteries don’t waste space with liquid and don’t leak anything if ruptured, so the chance of fire is more or less eliminated. If the list of solid-state’s positives is long and impressive, so why aren’t we seeing these batteries in cars right now? Because Sakti3 is taking things slow, being careful to avoid jumping headlong into the complex world of car batteries before its tech is proven. It’s starting small, on the consumer-electronics side of things. The company has announced a new partnership with snazzy vacuum-cleaner and appliance maker Dyson, which plans to utilize Sakti3 battery tech for its products. That’ll get Sakti3 noticed on the scale on which it wants to be noticed—and should the tie-up go well, the firm will move on to bigger projects.

As hot as we are for new technologies, at the end of the day we’re stupendously, hopelessly fixated on cars, so we asked Dr. Sastry when she thinks Sakti3 could be ready for primetime in the automotive sector (the company has received investment from General Motors, after all). She remained restrained. Her response wasn’t a dodge, mind you, but rather a pragmatic tempering of expectations: “Laptop batteries are powering cars right now. There is an established path, and it’s not that long, between consumer electronics and vehicles for battery technologies.” Cars require a totally different set of durability standards than, say, phones or vacuums, and when asked about Sakti3’s durability testing, Sastry simply responded that those are “TBD” and that the company is for now “going into markets where [it] can meet regulatory standards for the products.” We take all this to mean that the startup’s promising tech might not make its way into your first electric car—but that you can bet that the automotive sector is at or near the forefront of the company’s crystal ball.

We can get behind a battery that, volumetrically, at least, packs way more power than today’s batteries while also weighing much, much less, because right now electric cars’ key limitations have to do with their batteries. You can add more cells for more driving range, but then you’re also adding more weight and cost, and the gains thus suffer exponential decay. For now, however, we must wait to see how the technology proves itself in the small-appliance field; should it do well there, it’s only a matter of time before makers of EVs catch on and give it a shot. Maybe they should try taking a drive through our office park?